And I Live
by The Light's Refrain
Summary: ONESHOT When destiny fails and the unthinkable happens, Hugh is abruptly thrust into a new role. With rage, hate, and sorrow whirling him around endlessly like a tornado, will Hugh ever find peace? Or his true potential? Sequelshipping. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE LEGEND OF CHOCOLATE!


_AKA Pokewrite Drabble No.9! Only it mutated...a lot XD. I know you've always really liked the original drabble Chocolate, and I hope you like this completed version as well. _

_For people not named Chocolate, or are otherwise unfamiliar with the Pokewrite forums, this story deals with a simple what-if with shattering consequences. Prompts used were: Follow the madness, trust me I've got a plan, and please do it for me. This revision also used the prompt word "tower" from The General Prompt Challenge on the Pokemon Fanfiction Challenges Forum. _

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. So many chars would be both more epic and more miserable otherwise..._**

And I Live

"_Some think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes, it's letting go," -Sylvia Robertson_

Hugh did everything for her. _Her_, Rosa, the happy childhood friend who followed him around like a Lillipup since she was six and he was seven. _Her_, the girl who was always there to cheer him up and keep him going, even if sometimes she tried too hard. _Her_, the one who backed him up while fighting Team Plasma. _Her_, the beautiful one, the destined one.

_Her, _the one who now lay in a pool of freezing blood at his feet, icicles the size of pillars jutting through her like a frigid inverted crown of thorns. Her last screams tore at Hugh's ears even now.

Time froze, and not because of the icy temperatures, or the ice dragon's Kyurem's presence. All Hugh could do was stare at what was once Rosa, now a pale cold shell. He hardly noted the green-haired boy in the cave that stood nearby in mute shock, his dragon snatched away immediately after Rosa's life ended. The world lost all sound.

Then, laughter. A triumphant, gleeful, horrible laughter, coming from the dark-robed man standing beside Kyurem. Ghetsis, the leader of Team Plasma. Rosa's murderer. The world suddenly snapped back into focus, a red-rimmed ring forming around the cackling madman. Rage engulfed him like never before. He silently approached the unholy combination of Reshiram and Kyurem that was Kyurem White, Pokeball in hand, death in his eyes. Its mighty roars were nothing compared to those screams resounding in his head.

The icy beast was powerful but slow, and Hugh's Serperior easily evaded the twisted creature's blows. It spat its Leech Seed all over the dragon's body, which grew faster than the monster's claws and deadly breath could eliminate it. Preoccupied and weakened by the ever-growing plants, it was easy for Serperior to wrap itself around its thin neck and choke it out. Once the abomination was unconscious, it dispersed into cold light and became two Pokemon once again, Reshiram and Kyurem.

Hugh then turned to deal with the _real_ demon. His dedicated team of Pokemon partners swiftly ripped through Ghetsis's ragtag lineup, and would have assailed Ghetsis himself if the Shadow Triad hadn't suddenly spirited him elsewhere.

As Ghetsis was whisked away, as the war of the Plasma members outside started to die, as N pulled his cap down and turned away, Hugh finally allowed himself to slump down next to Rosa's body and weep. His Pokemon, battered but alive, gathered tightly around him like a living wall.

He had done it. He had gotten his sister's Purrloin back and obliterated Team Plasma. But this…it wasn't worth _this_. How was he going to tell everyone, when he went back to Aspertia City alone? That he had traded Rosa's life for justice, and a Purrloin that wasn't even a Purrloin anymore? That she was _dead _because of him?

He stared at his red reflection in her blood, his tears distorting the image. What was he going to do now?

Rosa always had a plan. She liked to say so too, especially when Hugh's recklessness got him into awkward situations. _What will you do if you don't know what to do?_ she had asked once, jokingly, with a big smile on her face. It wasn't funny now. Rosa had planned for everything, except for dying.

_Ghetsis_. He would pay with every drop of blood he had. Hugh's rage was rising and rising, a madness that he didn't want to stop. No, he would gladly follow this madness, if it meant avenging Rosa and ending Ghetsis's vileness once and for all…

IIIIII

Hugh hunted for Ghetsis in every crevice of Unova, and razed anything, or anyone, in his way. If the Team Plasma Grunts thought he was scary before, he was terrifying now, with his crimson eyes sleepless but all too alert, and his clothes dirty and ragged. He wasn't afraid of beating up the Grunts either for information, or just because his rage needed a temporary outlet. He only remembered to eat because his Pokemon brought him food they had caught while hunting.

Hugh finally found Ghetsis within the ruins of the original Victory Road, when Hugh spotted his Hydreigon wandering aimlessly outside. Upon putting down the miserable creature, Hugh entered the caverns and found the rest of Ghetsis's team inside. They attacked Hugh not out of protectiveness or even anger, but because they were starving and regarded any moving target as a potential meal. As his Pokemon crushed the desperate predators one by one, Hugh heard the echoes of insane laughter. Those disturbing reverberations eventually led him to a small stone chamber, where Ghetsis was tucked away like a ruined possession that someone couldn't bear to throw out.

The Shadow Triad was there too, and they attacked with all their Pokemon at once: an Absol, an Accelgor, a Banette, and six Bisharp. But Hugh had prepared for this, expected it even. He sent out all of his Pokemon too, and they cried out all at once, the signal. Seconds later, _her_ Pokemon charged in too: Emboar, Swanna, Lilligant, Emolga, Stoutland, and Lucario. They were not bound by his orders or their Pokeballs, for Hugh had chosen to release them. But they always stayed nearby regardless, for they wanted revenge for Rosa. Just like him.

The Pokemon flung themselves at each other like rogue waves, creating a screeching sea of fire and water and claws and teeth and blood. The Shadow Triad's Pokemon were swiftly pulled under the current of raging Pokemon, and soon not even the devious Shadow Triad could escape the mad tides of attacks. But Hugh paid little attention to the frothing chaos before him, and soon turned toward the exposed Ghetsis instead.

Hugh punched and kicked Ghetsis over and over again, the dreadful sounds of his blows and enraged cries swallowed by the storm of howls and screams behind him. He hit him and hit him, eyes crimson as the blood being spilt, yet all Ghetsis did was laugh and laugh. Like Hugh was just beating up a jack-o-lantern scarecrow doll with annoying sound effects, not an actual person…not that someone like Ghetsis ever counted as a human being anyway…He just wanted him to _shut up, shut up, shut-_

When Alder and Cheren finally arrived (Hugh had no idea how much time had passed), Ghetsis was a hideous disaster slumped on the cave floor. Blood was crusted all over him, and Hugh was only slightly more clean. But that didn't matter to Hugh. He was already bloodstained for Rosa's death. Upon seeing the others' aghast faces, Hugh only had one thing to say.

"It had to be done."

And then he walked away, taking his bloodstains with him. But still he heard her screams, now louder than ever.

IIIIII

Ghetsis had reportedly been found dead from some sort of wild Pokemon attack. It was hardly shocking, considering how aggressive the Pokemon on the old Victory Road were. No one questioned it, or cared.

Hugh didn't know what to do for the next few months. He mindlessly roamed Unova, looking at the beautiful scenery but not really seeing it. He thought that putting an end to Ghetsis, Rosa's killer, would give him satisfaction, or at least peace. Yet it didn't solve anything. Rosa was still dead. Even the thought that Ghetsis couldn't hurt anyone else brought him little solace.

At least he had N to talk to. N was mad, of course. That's what everyone said, even the people who liked him. Even though he was innocent, there was a certain wildness to him as well, a noble savage who still lived in his own world. He would stare off into space, laugh at nothing, sometimes cry at nothing instead. But he was the only other person who even came close to understanding Hugh's demons. Hugh suspected N still heard her screams too.

"This was not supposed to happen," N would say, seeming just as bewildered as sorrowful. "The future I saw never spoke of such a thing as this…"

Both stayed solemnly, stubbornly silent on the subject of Ghetsis's death.

Hugh couldn't understand N half of the time, either because of his rambling quicksilver speech or his overall strangeness. But Hugh liked him alright, so he didn't mind him showing up at the oddest spots, like the new Victory Road or the Ferris Wheel. N had someone he missed too, it seemed. He often spoke of her, though he never mentioned the girl's name. Hugh hoped he would find her again someday.

There were times where N would grow unnaturally quiet, and he would turn to Hugh as if to say something important. But then he would turn away, eyes sad for a moment, before he began prattling on about other things.

IIIIII

One day, Hugh decided to go see some movies. Specifically, _her_ movies. Rosa had dabbled in the art of being an actor every now and then. During their journey, her periodical divergences into movie-making incensed Hugh: clearly it was more important to take down Team Plasma and get his sister's Purrloin back than do some stupid skit in a green room. After her passing, Hugh couldn't bring himself to watch them because it was _Rosa_, only _not_ Rosa, just ghosts of Rosa as she never was. But finally, he brought himself to watch them.

They weren't masterpieces. Rosa looked away from the camera at odd times and stumbled over her lines. No amount of computer editing could hide that. But as Hugh kept watching, as Rosa changed from a superhero to a scientist to a love-struck schoolgirl, he suddenly felt tears running down his cheeks. They weren't tears of sadness, or rage, or pain. This kind of crying felt _good_, almost. This was how he wanted to remember Rosa: not as a corpse impaled by ice, but as the bright, joyful, bumbling girl he had always known since so long ago.

Hugh leaned back in his seat, his tears masked by the darkness of the theater and the laughs of the people around him. _Rosa, I'm so glad that I got to meet you…_

IIIIII

Later, Hugh ran into N again. N asked if he would come with him to a special place, somewhere that was buried deep but hardly forgotten by the people of Unova…

IIIIII

As Hugh stood before Dragonspiral Tower, the Light Stone pulsing warmly in his hands, he wondered, vaguely, what it would be like to have his own dreams. All his life, he had always obsessed over the wishes of other people. First he served his sister, vowing above all else to get her Purrloin back. Then, when Rosa died, her life ambitions towered over his own desires, even now.

…No, Hugh was living his dreams right now. He was a hero. He was famous, He was helping Pokemon and people reunite with each other, and driving away any budding threats. He was currently taming his sister's Liepard. With a little more training, he would be a Champion as well.

Hugh just wished that Rosa could see it. He wished so badly…

But he would be strong, and would keep getting stronger, for her sake. He would become Unova's protector, so that no one else would have to live in fear of losing a Pokemon or a friend. So no one else would have to die pointlessly.

_You have to forgive yourself_, his father had said all those years ago, when his sister's Purrloin was first taken. He didn't get it then, and continued obsessing over the Purrloin. He didn't get it when Rosa died either, or after he had put Ghetsis down. Now…

"Goodbye Rosa," Hugh murmured to the wind, approaching the tower before him. "Please look after me, as you always have."

He crossed the tower's threshold, and began to ascend.

_IIIIII_

_This oneshot revision was really hard to do, since there's such a potent mix of emotions in this story that I wanted to bring out. I hope I hit the right balance. Hoped you enjoyed the story, and feel free to let me know what you think of it. _


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